The Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources, Tarek El Molla, has witnessed the signing of agreements between Schlumberger and four Egyptian universities including Ain Shams University, the American University in Cairo (AUC), the German University in Cairo (GUC), and the British University in Egypt (BUE) for training their science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) students, a press release reported.

According to Karim Badawy, Managing Director – Egypt and East Mediterranean at Schlumberger, the company has allocated $30 million to finance software grants for the agreements, noting that the training program is composed of several practical and training aspects to help the students to get acquainted with work environment and gain practical skills.

Badawi elaborated that according to the agreements, Schlumberger is introducing a training program that supports the academic experiments of STEM students and helps them develop their academic and practical skills.

For his part, El Molla said that the ministry supports such agreements between the Egyptian universities and international oil companies (IOCs), asserting the importance of this agreement in minimizing the gap between academic and practical aspects and recognizing the job market needs.

The minister showcased the efforts being done to upgrade and develop the human cadres’ skills through the Modernization Project since its launch in 2016, which has a great impact on developing and updating the oil and gas industry as well as raising the efficiency of human resources.

The agreements was signed by Mahmoud El Metini, President of Ain Shams University; Ehab Abdel Rahman, Provost of AUC; Yasser Hegazy, President of GUC; and Ahmed Mohamed Hamad, President of BUE.